It;s an interesting list that raises many questions.
These 7 in particular spring to mind...

1. I wonder how up to date that list is?
2. Are there other names that should be added to it?
3. I have added stars after the names of potential future series champions. Would you have any opinions as to any other names that fit into that category?
4. Which of these names are very likely to appear on the show over the next 10 years?
5. Which of these names are likely to never go on the show?
6. Gevin! Why haven't you been on yet?!
7. Who or what is a 'Zef'?

I've heard rumours that Matthew Brockwell is planning to go on within the next 1-2 years, but no confirmations from me regarding future appearances for any of the other Apterites listed here (even in the near future).

I don't think anyone ever figured out who Zef was, and he was before my time anyway, but based on his wiki description it sounds like he may have ended up in an untoward incident involving a wine bottle a few years down the line.

Johnny Canuck wrote:
I don't think anyone ever figured out who Zef was, and he was before my time anyway, but based on his wiki description it sounds like he may have ended up in an untoward incident involving a wine bottle a few years down the line.

Richard Brittain then

COUNTDOWN or THETUBE? Which is better? There's only one way to find out....

Johnny Canuck wrote:I don't think anyone ever figured out who Zef was, and he was before my time anyway, but based on his wiki description it sounds like he may have ended up in an untoward incident involving a wine bottle a few years down the line.

Johnny Canuck wrote:I don't think anyone ever figured out who Zef was, and he was before my time anyway, but based on his wiki description it sounds like he may have ended up in an untoward incident involving a wine bottle a few years down the line.

(Zef). He's never been on apterous or c4c as far as I know, whether under a pseudonym or not (if he had, he'd have been unable to stop himself posting about one or the other, and one of us would definitely have picked up on his unique authorial voice).

P.S. I put his real name in brackets and the forum changed it to (Zef)! How mad is that?

No... that's not acceptable!
How long have you been obsessed with Countdown?!
Was it something insane like 2002 that you set up a countdown Yahoo group?
That's 14 years ago now.
Richard and Carol were still presenting!

If you are going for the award of "longest procrastination in fan history", take a bow, you've already won that, and no-one's gonna run you close. lol

The time has surely come to ditch the vague "maybe" and "if I ever improve" talk, and set a definite deadline.
You should aim to go on S77 and we'll be quarter finalists together.

I didn't forget that.
It was deliberately excluded... as Zef should have been.
What I wanted to put here is a list of Apterites who have yet to go on TV.
So really, anyone on that list who has never been on Apterous should be deleted from it.

There are probably loads of names that should be added to it.
For example I was playing a new Apterite yesterday -Amar Chotai- who has an audition for TV this week. So there is that flow of new people who find Apterous and have designs on applying for CD.
Also there are plenty of long standing Apterites like e.g. Jojo Apollo, Barry Bridger, Ray Wilding... who aren't on the list, and (assuming those aren't pseudonyms) haven't been on the show either... so perhaps they should be added.

Euan Slatter wrote:And plus, I fell the stars are a bit hard on those without one

Johnny Canuck wrote:I don't think anyone ever figured out who Zef was, and he was before my time anyway, but based on his wiki description it sounds like he may have ended up in an untoward incident involving a wine bottle a few years down the line.

AFAIK:
- Rob, Nguyen and Bayf don't want to go on
- Lav and Brocky will go on fairly soon
- Jamie McNeill is a potential series champ who also won't go on, having retired from Apto and events
- Quite a few don't live in the UK/Ireland (Andrew Feist, Jamie Karran, Josh Hurst)
- Shrinidhi is too young to go on
- At least 2 on the list have been on, but are listed by their pseudonyms and may not want to be identified

Didn't Howard Somerset die or am I thinking of someone else? The series champ thing seems a bit arbitrary and pointless due to the enormous fluctuations in finalist quality (sometimes in consecutive series - compare series 62 and 63!), but yolo.

Most of the people on the list though are those who went to one or two Co-events 5 years ago - there are loads more who could be added since (I have an up-to-date list of everyone who's been to an event ever), but the Wiki is hopelessly out of date on everything except broadcast game results/details, pretty much. If anyone wants to regularly maintain it, let me know; FOCAL could do with a Wiki fairy to update our pages regularly and maybe put results up...

Jennifer Steadman wrote:AFAIK:
- Rob, Nguyen and Bayf don't want to go on
- Lav and Brocky will go on fairly soon
- Jamie McNeill is a potential series champ who also won't go on, having retired from Apto and events
- Quite a few don't live in the UK/Ireland (Andrew Feist, Jamie Karran, Josh Hurst)
- Shrinidhi is too young to go on
- At least 2 on the list have been on, but are listed by their pseudonyms and may not want to be identified

Didn't Howard Somerset die or am I thinking of someone else? The series champ thing seems a bit arbitrary and pointless due to the enormous fluctuations in finalist quality (sometimes in consecutive series - compare series 62 and 63!), but yolo.

Most of the people on the list though are those who went to one or two Co-events 5 years ago - there are loads more who could be added since (I have an up-to-date list of everyone who's been to an event ever), but the Wiki is hopelessly out of date on everything except broadcast game results/details, pretty much. If anyone wants to regularly maintain it, let me know; FOCAL could do with a Wiki fairy to update our pages regularly and maybe put results up...

I can confirm that even when I was a regular Co-event attendee, I never had any desire to appear on televised CD. I achieved my final English language Countdown goal when I finished 8th at Co:KL 2015 (thereby giving me a full set of top ten finishes) and I've since gone back to playing Scrabble.

I can't guarantee I'll never change my mind**, but I doubt Countdown is desperate for yet another apterous-trained word geek to apply for the show. (Obviously, I like watching the word geeks, but I think Countdown's core audience prefer contestants of a standard they can play along with.)

--MB

**I did say a few years ago I'd apply if former contestants Mark Deeks or Ned Pendleton ever became hosts of the show. I wasn't being entirely serious, but I'd probably keep my word.

Matt Bayfield wrote:**I did say a few years ago I'd apply if former contestants Mark Deeks or Ned Pendleton ever became hosts of the show. I wasn't being entirely serious, but I'd probably keep my word.

Oh, I didn't know Ned was interested too. Is it on, Ned? Cos we're boys and all, but if it's on, it's on.

Eoin Monaghan wrote:
He may not be liked on here, but you have to give some credit to Mark

I doubt Countdown is desperate for yet another apterous-trained word geek to apply for the show. (Obviously, I like watching the word geeks, but I think Countdown's core audience prefer contestants of a standard they can play along with.)

--MB

Interesting comment.

As a (mere) viewer, I always preferred seeing people who were better than me. Obviously it's gratifying to beat the contestants when you're playing along, but you learn more from better contestants and it's more of a spectacle. Although that was before I knew Apterous existed. And I think it's especially true when it comes to the series finals, I think the show is better the more impressive the finalists are.

Also I think the show is just happy to have contestants in general. Which is why they allow contestants to reappear, many of whom are the word geeks as you say.

If nothing else, I think people would enjoy watching better contestants because they typically seem to hate people who play well/appear on episode after episode, and are thus invested in the game, as they are supporting the challenger.

I know I am always in awe watching the better contestants, and a few years ago when I didn't really watch Countdown I still watched Countdown for a few days in one series when I had happened to accidentally tune in when someone amazing was playing and I was in awe at how good they were. I even watched the grand final of that series and was gutted when the person who I thought was the best lost 80-70 (looking back it seems this was Jonathan Rawlinson). I don't think I'd have done that if I had happened to see someone who wasn't as good. But then on the flip side I do also enjoy seeing close games too without a 100 point whitewash. I like a bit of everything really as I imagine most viewers do. I don't think there's a single Countdown viewer who doesn't at least enjoy seeing the odd word played which is new to them. I know I enjoyed watching Paul Erdunast come up with words such as ALIGOTE which I had never heard of. But a whole series of Pauls would probably begin to get boring.

That's interesting. She seems like one of the ones I wouldn't mind. Why did she do your head in out of interest?

I won't be on the show for another 2 years or so maybe.

Don't get me wrong she wasn't malicious or nasty or anything, and she was very friendly, but pretty much between every round of every game she was asking the same sort of inane questions over and over again like "how do you know these words", "do you just spot the words straight away, or do you have a method", when Nick reads out the teaser "so Martin, what's the answer?" etc etc - it was fine at first but after 75 rounds it was just like fingernails on a blackboard.

That's interesting. She seems like one of the ones I wouldn't mind. Why did she do your head in out of interest?

I won't be on the show for another 2 years or so maybe.

Don't get me wrong she wasn't malicious or nasty or anything, and she was very friendly, but pretty much between every round of every game she was asking the same sort of inane questions over and over again like "how do you know these words", "do you just spot the words straight away, or do you have a method", when Nick reads out the teaser "so Martin, what's the answer?" etc etc - it was fine at first but after 75 rounds it was just like fingernails on a blackboard.

Oh that does sound rather annoying. Did you mention about Apterous, stem words and that or did you keep it a secret? Considering the audience must have seen you discuss it etc?

I passed my audition in October. I'm a teacher though and, whilst my holidays are amazing, it's tricky to take time off work. I had a protracted email exchange with one of the researchers, which confirmed that they aren't filming during any of my holidays right through to September 2018. I eventually wrote to my Board of Governors, who agreed to give me time off. I was offered a filming date in April, but the principal didn't like those dates, so then I was given May.

September seems a strange month to be having holidays as a teacher.
I work at a school and I wouldn't get holidays in September, however I am off in the recording week leading up to Easter in April this year.

I originally was looking for a filming date when I was off. I sent through all of my holidays right through to September 2018 (although I'm back in from around the 20th of August), namely the mid terms and Summer etc. They weren't filming any of those times. (I am in work up until the Wednesday before Easter)

That's interesting. She seems like one of the ones I wouldn't mind. Why did she do your head in out of interest?

I won't be on the show for another 2 years or so maybe.

Don't get me wrong she wasn't malicious or nasty or anything, and she was very friendly, but pretty much between every round of every game she was asking the same sort of inane questions over and over again like "how do you know these words", "do you just spot the words straight away, or do you have a method", when Nick reads out the teaser "so Martin, what's the answer?" etc etc - it was fine at first but after 75 rounds it was just like fingernails on a blackboard.

Oh that does sound rather annoying. Did you mention about Apterous, stem words and that or did you keep it a secret? Considering the audience must have seen you discuss it etc?

Nah - didn't mention Apterous or any specific techniques at all (couldn't be arsed to go into it with her really) - just kept saying "lots of practice" - about 5000 times